Biculturalism

Abstract

Growing numbers of people are being exposed to a second culture, yet the process by which individuals absorb a cultural identity and the role played by second-culture exposure in shaping sociocognitive skills have received little theoretical attention. This article begins to fill these knowledge gaps by delineating the factors that affect the adoption of specific acculturation strategies and focusing on the power of secondculture exposure to stimulate integratively complex cognitions that give people the flexibility to shift rapidly from one cultural meaning system to another. We propose a model, influenced by prior work on value pluralism and accountability, which outlines the underlying mechanisms that determine acculturation choice and that produce both individual difference and situational variation in integrative complexity of social functioning. Implications for expatriate performance are discussed.

Multicultural experiences reduce intergroup bias through epistemic unfreezing.

“…As multicultural experiences accumulate, existing scripts and knowledge structures no longer provide guidance on how to act nor do they afford a sense of predictability (Ruble, 1994). The accuracy of preconceived notions in terms of how well they describe the entire group is called into question.T he disconnect between internalized preconceptions and reality invokes a sense of cognitive disequilibrium and dissonance which must be resolved (Festinger, 1957;Gurin et al, 2002;McGregor, Newby-Clark, & Zanna, 1999;Ruble, 1994;Tadmor & Tetlock, 2006). In these circumstances, armed with little knowledge and much uncertainty, individuals become "epistemically unfrozen" (Kruglanski, 1989(Kruglanski, , 2004Kruglanski et al, 2009;Kruglanski & Freund, 1983;Kruglanski & Webster, 1996;Webster & Kruglanski, 1997).…”

“…Indeed, exposure to only a foreign culture failed to yield either creative or motivational benefits (Leung & Chiu, 2010;Tadmor, Galinsky, & Maddux, 2012;Tadmor et al, 2009). Rather, it appears it is tbe simultaneous juxtaposition of existing and new knowledge and the resulting dissonance tbat is created tbat are particularly critical (e.g., Leung & Cbiu, 2010;Leung et al, 2008;Tadmor, Galinsky, & Maddux, 2012;Tadmor & Tetlock, 2006;Tadmor et al, 2009;cf McGregor et al, 1999). Therefore, we compared the stereotype tendencies of individuals exposed to either only an American culture presentation or only a Cbinese culture presentation with those of participants who were exposed to a presentation involving both American and Chinese cultures.…”

Integrative complexity, beliefs, and attitudes: Application to prescribed fire

“…An adequate amount of differentiation is a necessary condition for integration (Bright and Barro, 2000;Carroll and Bright, 2010). In sum, high integrative complexity requires an individual to carefully weigh the merits of alternate perspectives, or policies, and form connections and reasonable tradeoffs among them (Tadmore andTetlock, 2006: Tetlock, 2002).…”

Excellence in International Cooperation

“…On the Cultural Creativity Test, students who had studied abroad were deemed to have recruited and combined intellectual resources from various cultural frameworks to generate ideas and solutions that were richer in description, detail, and humor than those generated by students in the other groups, including the group planning to study abroad. Multicultural experiences involve the accumulation and integration of learned routines and conventional knowledge from a new culture, as well as practice switching mentally between different cultural worldviews [30,31,33].…”

“…It endeavors to promote academic knowledge and excellence as well as integration and cooperation between the member universities. It also seeks to be a driving force in the development of the Bologna process and to facilitate the integration of Eastern and Central European universities into the European Higher Education Area [33,43]. It also provides universities with information on European initiatives and programs, and supports them in cooperative projects.…”